• Meet the Test Kitchen •

Amber: Fluent in food science and creative cooking

Food is not just a job for Amber. In fact, she’s been experimenting with food since an early age. In the Test Kitchen blog you can read about all her adventures, from canning jams and jellies, to making bread from a wild sourdough starter, to trying out new ethnic cuisines. She is excited to share her creativity and expertise with you.

Chillin’ with Enchiladas

In our neighborhood, we seem to have a large group of busy, friendly neighbors that like to get together. We already know that our kids are going to be getting together and hanging out, so the adults often join in and enjoy the evening too! When we are on top of our game, we’ll plan a little bit and organize a quick dinner. Last week, we ended up with a Mexican theme night. I prepared these Spicy Black Bean & Chicken Enchiladas in about 30 minutes! Even better, I had a good-sized kitchen crew to help out. Check out how easy these are to put together!

Luckily, I happened to have a rotisserie chicken and so I used it, instead of cooking chicken for this recipe. I cut up about 1 cup of the chicken. Great time-saver here (and I had plenty left over for sandwiches the next day!)

Put 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin and 1 teaspoon of chili powder into a 10-inch skillet over medium heat.

Then add 1 cup of the cut-up cooked chicken to the skillet.

The next step is to drain the black beans. Note I have help…it’s Tyler, who is now 6 years old. He loves to help with some of the cooking!

Once the beans are drained, add them to the chicken mixture.

Cook the bean and chicken mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until heated throughout. This takes about 2 to 3 minutes. Meanwhile, pull out the 5 slices of American cheese the recipe calls for, and cut them into strips like this:

Then, just dice the cheese into small pieces. The American cheese is perfect for this recipe due to the way it melts so evenly. We usually have some in our house for grilled cheese sandwiches or the kids just grab a slice as a snack.

Remove the chicken and beans from the heat and stir in 1 cup sour cream until the mixture is evenly mixed.

This is such a fun and easy recipe to put together - we had plenty of helpers in the kitchen! First, heat the oven to 375°F. We set up our ingredients in ‘assembly line’ style. You will need eight 8" tortillas for a 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish. Grease the baking dish and it set aside. Take a tortilla and spread 1 tablespoon of enchilada sauce on the tortilla (or you can use salsa - which we used here.)

Take 1/2 cup of the chicken & bean mixture and spread it onto the tortilla.

Then sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the American cheese right on top of the mixture.

Make sure your mixture is evenly spread throughout the tortilla. We found that it is best if you place the mixture a little more to one side of the tortilla. Then when you begin to roll the tortilla up, the mixture is placed evenly throughout the tortilla instead of oozing out. Roll ‘em up!

Place each roll seam side-down into the greased baking pan.

Continue the process, until you have filled the pan (mine made 8).

Then, spread the remaining salsa or enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place into oven to bake for 15 minutes or until heated through.

After baking for 15 minutes, uncover the pan and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Wait a minute...I thought there would be more cheese leftover to put over the top???

AHA! We had a picture of the culprit sneaking cheese! Hmmmm...glad these are close friends we have coming over tonight, if not, I might have had a dilemma on my hands. To disclose, or not to disclose? Full disclosure.

But seriously...I couldn’t make these stories up if I tried!

Ok, so in my situation here - you’ve seen that I am out of cheese :( We had to improvise a little bit and we added some additional cheese on top. Why didn’t I have more American cheese? My "helpers" ate it all. Hard to find good help these days!

Place the enchiladas into the oven for another 3 - 5 minutes until the cheese is melted. It will look like this - AMAZING! The sauce is bubbling, the cheese is melted and it smells incredible!

Top the enchiladas with shredded lettuce, fresh tomatoes or onions. Add a tablespoon of sour cream and you have a quick easy meal that everyone will be asking for seconds on! Best of all…there are minimal dishes and pans to clean so you can enjoy the rest of your evening! Wa-hoo!

Here we have an enchilada with "the works"...

...and another one with just the simple "sour cream only, please."

We enjoyed our fiesta-style meal with friends - and we all giggled over the "cheese bandit" eating all the cheese when we weren’t looking! Life is never perfect, but it’s how you roll it that makes it interesting! This is what makes good memories, right? I know you will enjoy these Spicy Black Bean & Chicken Enchiladas with your family as much as we did!

Check back in a few days when Liz will share about a great new tomato soup with a secret ingredient.

• Comments •

I have always wanted to try making enchiladas but was never convinced I could do a good job with just a recipe. Thank you for the step by step instructions, I will definitely try these out on my husband. In my house he is the cheese culprit.

Posted Apr 04 2014 by Mirna

This is the best!! First made it a year or two ago and it has become a regular addition. Since there is just the 2 of us, I split the recipe in half and freeze the other half - always a bonus. Can not recommend highly enough.

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Hi, I'm Becky. I'm eager to share my best ideas and favorite recipes from my 20+ years in the Land O'Lakes Test Kitchen. I'm also excited to help with any questions you have about cooking and baking with Land O Lakes® products. Some of the questions and answers will be published in our newsletter, The Measuring Cup®. Please use the short form below to ask your questions, or share your tip or memory.

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